US fleet deployment
Fidel Castro in his May 4 op-ed voiced concern on the reassembly of the US 4th Fleet, which was announced in early April. Today, the head of USSOUTHCOMM assured that the fleet did not pose a regional threat.
Via AFP:
The commander of US Southern Command, Admiral James Stavridis, sought Thursday to reassure Latin American military chiefs that reinstating the US Fourth Fleet in the region posed them no threat.
“It is not an offensive force in any way,” he told reporters after a meeting of military chiefs from Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay in Brasilia.
“The IV Fleet’s entire purpose is cooperation, friendship, response to natural disaster, missions of peace and, yes, there will be counter narcotics work, as is traditional.”
The Navy’s announcement last month that it was reviving the fleet after a nearly 60-year slumber, to direct increasing American naval presence in the Caribbean and Latin America, has provoked concern among leaders in the region.
Cuba’s former leader Fidel Castro said it signaled a return to gunboat diplomacy, while Bolivian President Evo Morales called it “the Fourth Fleet of intervention.”
The Fourth Fleet was a major US navy command during World War II when it was used to enforce blockades and protect against enemy submarines and raiders, but was eliminated in the 1950s.
From July 1 it will take operational responsibility over navy ships assigned to the region from the US Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, based out of Florida.
Stavridis said the fleet’s objectives included training exercises and humanitarian relief, adding: “It is strictly for planning and training.
“When the IV Fleet executes one of the missions that I mention, it will do so with ships that are given to it by the US Navy, for that mission. There is no aircraft carrier in the IV Fleet.”
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